About

The initiative of the Popular-Citizen Constituent emerged from a letter sent in May 2014, inviting the holding of a first workshop “Towards the Citizen Constituent Assembly” on July 5 of the same year.

Below we reproduce the text of this first letter signed by Mr. Raúl Vera and the signatures that signed it:

Based on the proposal of Bishop Raúl Vera López, the undersigned invite you to carry out the first Workshop on reflection on the contents and the starting route of the Citizen Constituent initiative. As a preamble to our next meeting, we anticipate some ideas from compañero Raúl Vera:

The dream of the Citizen Constituent *
“[…] We must bet on a kind of Alternative Constituent Congress . We must rebuild the legal architecture that guarantees true democracy in Mexico. In this way, through a peaceful and legal path , we will counteract the power acquired by a few families in the public and private sectors, which at this moment define the social model at the national level through simulated processes of democracy.

We have to think seriously about how we can rescue this nation . We are already many people in Mexico that think in this way and we do not want this transformation of the country to take a violent path.

In the first place , we have to design a way to reach what we want our nation to be; but the road itself must be understood as the gestation of a different scenario in the country. Even when it is in its infancy, this context must already guarantee the conformation of the quality of people who will take us to the country we want to be.

From the beginning of our journey as a nation, we must think about the profile of citizenship that knows how to delegate to those who represent it with all loyalty and truth, to shape the sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures that give our Mexican home the design that allows all and all Mexicans live in freedom, and with all the rights and adequate channels that guarantee that our voice is heard in the development of life in Mexico.

Secondly, the country must be characterized by a dynamism that allows continuous dialogue with citizens , a dialogue that facilitates permanent educational processes, which give equal access to all at a dignified level of life.

The beginning of everything is a kind of Alternative Constituent Congress which must have several stages. These must be expressly designed in order to generate, from a prospective perspective, a model of mature citizenship with the capacity to express and participate actively. It is not a question of arriving at any means to the goal of having a constitutional reform, but it is necessary to take small steps with an express disposition to increase the citizen’s awareness in which the processes allow the necessary growth of the people. It is not about creating a few super leaders, but, fully, all and all Mexicans, can really participate, knowing what they want for themselves and for the whole society, considering even the most vulnerable people and away from the neighborhood or of the daily social circle. We have to think that all the voices and all the aspirations of the country should be included in the new Constitution that we want. In this way, our Magna Carta will truly be the point of reference to combine the will of Mexico in respect for justice and the rights of all.

A first requirement is that everyone knows conscientiously what we have of Constitution at this time . What remains in it is really in favor of the progress of the Mexican population, and what has been cleverly reformed, that favors a few groups and people and harms the vast majority of citizens. To design the methodology and to put the Constitution in the hands of our people, the first actors will be academics and specialists in constitutional law, in methods of citizen participation and in pedagogy and educational tactics.

It is not about creating a small group. We have to put to work universities and higher education centers across the country that freely want to join this transformation process. It must be stated that it is a question of the Mexican people, in their totality, knowing the contradictions that exist within the Constitution and the measures that, based on constitutional laws, the federal government and state governments can take to expel from progress and of the dignified life to the citizens.

We must find a way to achieve a collaboration of many people, as well as its word is important, it is essential to train the critical citizen who can not only question the irregularities that have been introduced in the Constitution, but contribute with his word to the reconstruction of our laws.

The next step will be to build an educational process so that the whole of society can contribute to the reconstruction of the constitutional text; For this we will have to demand much in terms of the generation, in a differentiated way, of a path in which the different categories or sectors of citizens can contribute through their aspirations to justice and the welfare of their persons and their families and groups. , the elements that serve for the construction of the integral legal body that Mexico needs at this moment. This will not be in a general way, as we did in the first stage, but we will have to group the peasants, the indigenous people, the women, the students in an orderly manner., to employers, etc., to obtain sufficient information that is the basis for reconstructing the Constitution, taking into account what citizens are suffering, the injustices to which they are subjected, the lack of functionality in public service; We need laws that guarantee an adequate justice process. We have to let all sectors of the people express their needs and their complaints.

In the same way as in the previous phase, this participation is not only based on the Constitution, but to create awareness in the people of the capacity that gives the Constitution itself to provide their own laws. It is at this stage that a new country can be designed to open, in a dynamic and continuous manner, through the referendum and the referendum, citizen participation in the conduct of the country. It will also be the opportunity to introduce the revocation of the mandate and to update our Constitution with the principles of international law.

It is clear that also in this phase the presence of experts and experts is necessary to strengthen the contributions of our people. As with the revision of the Constitution, these specific groups that will have to be trained must have advisory services and sufficient means of information. If we want to be successful, we must be many who commit ourselves to walk alongside the different ones that sustain the whole life of the country.

Taking the word of our people in this consultative process, broad and plural, should return to the hands of academics and experts, so that with a revised Constitution and criticized by the same people , and with their respective suggestions and what is necessary to redo that text, work on its reworking. At the end of this work, you must return to the hands of our newly organized people , by specialized sectors and categories, so that you can once again give your word on this Constitution.

If we can talk about three processes: review and criticism, contribution to its reconstruction, and a new revision of the finished text , this path should generate a mature citizenship to take a very serious approach to the conduct of their country in a truly democratic spirit in which all of us are responsible for the life of our country.

Also in this dynamic of dialogue; where we will have known, helped and, reciprocally encouraged in all this way , will be revealed between us the quality and the moral quality , the capacity of authentic political leadership, to dispose, by consensus, to choose the people we want to represent us in the two chambers of the Congress of the Union. This election will be through the different electoral districts, still in force in our Constitution, it will no longer be through political parties . At the same time that we elect a Congress in a consensual manner, we will design the new path to integrate the government we want; with the people we want to govern us.Article 39 of the Constitution recognizes the sovereignty that the people of Mexico have to give themselves, at the moment they decide, the type of government they want. […] ”

The Workshop “Towards the Citizen Constituent Assembly” will be held next SATURDAY, JULY 5, in Mexico City, in a place to be confirmed. The work schedule will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We will address three major issues:
a) Diagnosis on major national problems , for which we will work with the progress that has been made in this regard in the working sessions of the Permanent Tribunal of the Peoples – Chapter Mexico.
b) Presentation of the Proposal Towards the Citizen Constituent of Comrade Raúl Vera López.
c) Discussion and proposals on the Start Route of the Citizen Constituent.

Registration at the meeting venue will begin at 9 a.m. The details of the methodology that includes discussion in tables and plenaries will be announced 15 days in advance; once we have the information about the compañeras and the compañeros who have sent confirmation of their attendance.

Note:
(*) Summary of chapter V “The disappointment of politicians and the dream of a citizen constituent” of the book by Bernardo Barranco, The social gospel of Bishop Raúl Vera. Conversations with Bernardo Barranco. Mexico, Ed. Grijalbo, January 2014, pp. 121-143.